As everyone in Dumbo has likely seen, the Dock Street Dumbo building – 60 Water Street (official name) on Dock, Front, and Water Streets – is nearly complete. And finally, we have an updated rendering to match it.

The updated rendering isn’t too much different than the original image from 2008, though it does better capture the glass that now almost fully covers the building’s façade.

The building will have 290 units, 58 of which will be affordable units. Two Trees is slated to begin leasing this fall, with occupancy scheduled before 2015.

Damon Dash in the kitchen, via First We Eat and Damon Dash’s Instagram

It seems all but official: Damon Dash, his son Boogie and rapper Cam’ron are taking over the failed Dish restaurant in DUMBO.

Speaking with First We Eat, Damon Dash confirmed the refocused restaurant will hopefully open sometime in August. “Really, when I looked at the restaurant, I was so excited,” Dash said. “I was like, ‘I’m doing it!’ and then I instagrammed it, and then I had to do it.”

A former Dish employee confirms he heard the same information from an ex-coworker. “They [heard] she [former Dish owner Samera Abed] was trying to sell the place to Damon Dash…but I hear she was asking too much for the place.”

Dash explained that he and his team are still finalizing the menu, but that it will potentially feature a range of dishes. The late-night arm of the restaurant, Dash Lounge – whose loud after-hours patrons ruffled some feathers in the neighborhood – is scheduled to reopen as well.

“I’m going to have a night menu, or at least I’d like to. It’ll be real selfish – stuff that I love,” Dash told First We Eat. “For me, I’ve got to have a cheeseburger, chicken fingers, and a cocktail. I like ghetto gourmet.”

We’ll keep you posted as we hear more updates. As always, feel free to leave questions or leads in the comments!

The August First Thursday Gallery Walk is tonight, and the DUMBO BID has your map and gallery listings ready to go. As part of the Gallery Walk, galleries and shops stay open late, and are free and accessible to the public.

Among the exhibits drawing a buzz leading up to tonight’s events is Tatyana Fazlalizadeh’s “Stop Telling Women to Smile.” Fazlalizadeh’s work has found acclaim in its powerful address of gender-based street harassment. Her work will be on display at the Made in NY Media Center at 30 John Street.

Don’t forget to stop in for a drink around the neighborhood while you’re visiting the exhibits. Find happy hour specials here, including a buy-one-get-one-free deal at Gran Electrica from 5:30 to 7:30 PM.

Dish Dumbo, the Mediterranean-inspired restaurant that opened to fanfare in October 2013, looks to have shuttered its doors – likely for good. Closed since early June, the eatery at 81 Washington Street’s sheer drapes are drawn, patio plants are overgrown, and tables are stacked and abandoned. The now-worn sign in the restaurant’s glass window cites “new management” as the reason for its closure.

However, according to Jon, a former Dish employee, Ms. Abed was forced to closed her restaurant after employees walked out on June 7 after she did not pay anyone for two weeks. “The sign in the window says ‘closed due to new management’ but in reality the owner Samera Abed does not have any more money after her investor stopped funding her because of her poor management.”

Ms. Abed told DumboNYC that her employees’ claims are false. “Yes we are closed for now but it is not because the staff walked out,” she said. “We are renovating and repositioning our restaurant.”

She added, “The staff has always been treated well. If any have issues with ownership or feel they were wronged they should contact me directly as I hope to work with them again in the future.”

But Jon countered that since the employees left, “she is dodging calls and emails.”

While Dish opened to great anticipation in October 2013, it quickly became clear that the restaurant had its kinks to work out. After a repeatedly delayed opening, service reportedly quickly declined, as detailed in progressively dismal Yelp reviews. Neighbors complained of late-night partying and yelling that continued onto the street past the restaurant’s stated hours.

Ms. Abed insists that the restaurant will reopen later in the summer. However, information is swirling among former employees that she has instead moved for Florida, and that Two Trees is seeking to void her lease.

“We never got paid for the last two weeks of our employment, [and] most of us are not eligible for unemployment because most of us were there less than 6 months,” Jon said.

While Dish’s former employees look to put the restaurant behind them, Dumbo awaits what’s next for Dish’s space.

This week, a new lunch joint joined the neighborhood: Little Nica, a pop-up stall run out of Little Muenster on Front Street in Dumbo. Falling in line with Little Muenster’s wheelhouse of cheese and bread, the pop-up shop will serve Quesillos – Nicaraguan street food composed of handmade corn tortillas, semi-soft cow’s milk cheese, pickled onions and crema – at the restaurant’s Front Street location through September.

Husband and wife ownership team Vanessa Palazio and Adam Schneider are the brains behind both Little Muenster and the pop-up shop concept. Schneider explained the impetus for the summertime shift to Nicaraguan food: “Vanessa’s family is Nicaraguan and she is a first-generation American and it has always been an interest to bring Nicaraguan cooking to the States. Americans have become accustomed to Latin flavors and we feel that we can expand their horizons even more.”

The tortilla and fillings are rolled into a cone, and are meant to be eaten with one hand. Add-ons include smashed avocado, slow-roasted pork, and braised lengua (tongue). “Think quesadilla meets burrito,” he says.

Menu items cost between $5.50 and $8.50, and the shop is open from 11:30 AM to 4:00 PM Monday through Saturday.

(Jessica Thurston is a DUMBO resident and contributor to DumboNYC. With a background in environmental sustainability and urban planning, she loves learning about everything going on in the neighborhood – and drinking iced coffee from One Girl Cookies.)

On Friday, July 18, a relaunch of the live-action version of the classic video game, Pac-Man, will consume DUMBO streets. PacManhattan is an interactive event in which costumed players will join into teams and chase each other through the neighborhood streets, decked out as Pac-Man and Ghosts.

PacManhattan will kick off the Come Out & Play Festival, an annual festival of street games that will turn the city into a playground on August 18 – 19. Players will be guided via cell phone over a nine-mile course, starting with a chase through the neighborhood’s cobblestone streets. This year’s game is the 10th anniversary of the first PacManhattan game, which took place among the streets of Greenwich Village in 2004, organized by New York University students.

Game designer Pete Vigeant, one of the original NYU game creators, is looking forward to the shift from Manhattan to Brooklyn. “The entire grid is filled with amazing micro and macro views of what makes NYC an amazing place,” Vigeant told DumboNYC, “and the players will get to soak it up as they transform the space into a gameboard. Our goal is to make urban environments magical and I can’t wait to add to the magic that’s already pulsing through DUMBO.”

The game will be held from 3:00 to 8:00 PM on Friday, with tickets for each session needed from 3:00 to 6:00. Games are first-come, first-served from 6:00 to 8:00.

“It’s a really amazing team effort and results in this high-tech mash-up of capture the flag and tag, with a video game flair,” Vigeant explained. “And everyone wears costumes, which is pretty fun as well.”

(Jessica Thurston is a DUMBO resident and contributor to DumboNYC. With a background in environmental sustainability and urban planning, she loves learning about everything going on in the neighborhood – and drinking iced coffee from One Girl Cookies.)